1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed generally to a pickup head. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a pickup head for converting a product to windrows.
2. Background Art
Harvesters, balers and mergers such as those that may be used for picking up and/or harvesting hay, beans and other agricultural products are well known and provide for mechanized pick up of agricultural products from the field. The crop is typically either picked up from a windrow, which has been laid by other machinery, or directly cut, from the ground. In other instances, crops are first mowed with mowers where the product is left wide spread on the ground without any effort in redirecting the product into windrows, etc. The product may subsequently be picked up by mergers to form windrows. Such harvesting devices generally include a tine or tooth reel having a plurality of tines or teeth or sets of tines or teeth spaced along a transverse axis that engage the agricultural product near the ground and propel it up over the reel and rearward. The crop is delivered from the head to a conveying system and to further processing machinery where some crops, such as hay are baled or chopped further.
Hay mergers have a fundamentally different head that includes conveyors associated with the reels that transport hay to one end or the other for creating windrows.
Devices for merging windrows are well known and are used to gather material, such as cut hay that might be windrowed, and merge it into one or more windrows for harvesting or baling. Such windrow mergers typically included a single pickup head to move the material to a single row at one side of the merger. The merging and often other ensuing operations must often be performed during a small timeframe when conditions are favorable, e.g., when the ground is dry and firm and when it is not raining and when the product is at its suitable moisture level, so that the need exists for a merger with greater merging capacity so as not to slow the harvest process and that windrow merging activity can be completed within this small timeframe. A limiting factor for getting the merging and other duties completed within the small timeframe is the availability of the devices. The availability of reliable devices for merging is important in that windrow merging is typically performed just before windrows are baled, chopped and hauled away subsequently to their respective destinations. The machines, including mergers, must be available to complete windrow merging or other subsequent operations will be halted.
A conventional merger employs a pickup head having a single reel with flexible steel teeth controlled by a cam that establishes a path where the tooth picks up the product and throws it rearward, retracts to clear other structures and then repeats the cycle. A conventional pickup head requires a reel encompassing a rather large overall diametric space to get the crop to a desired height to be deposited onto a conveyor belt disposed at a height, into a windrow, cutting chamber, or into a baling mechanism. In another conventional pickup head, a wide belt with plastic or steel teeth affixed to the wide belt is used to pick up the product and convey it to a greater height. The use of a wide belt means that the amount of moving parts, such as the flexible belt itself and other supporting parts, e.g., drive and idler wheels or rollers and the maintenance required to keep the system running smoothly, are tremendous. Further, any undesired materials, e.g., stones or dirt, unwittingly picked up and thrown on the belt are mixed in with formed windrows. Yet further, such wide belt devices have a taller profile which makes it more challenging to group them together for a wider pickup such as the pickup heads disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,166,739 to Dow et al.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,312,700 to Leiston (hereinafter Leiston) discloses a tine assembly used with an agricultural machine such as a harvester or hay merger. The tine assemblies mount on a reel that rotates about an axis extending transverse to the direction of travel. The tine assembly includes a first tine and a second tine, each having a main extended portion and a lateral portion extending transverse to the main portion at a mounting end of the tines. The lateral portions mount into tabs or opposite ends of a sleeve. The sleeve or tabs and mounting end of the tines are enclosed by a molded mounting portion that also includes a reinforcing arcing element configured for mounting to the reel bar. The arcing element includes orifices that allow for easily bolting and unbolting the tine assemblies for easy attachment and removal. Detachment of a mounting portion from an arcing member is possible, bringing with it the tines attached to it.
When this event occurs, the detached portions can be inadvertently mixed in with windrows and eventually make their way to animal feed. If such portions are consumed by animals, e.g., cattle, this can cause animal loss. Conventional tines may come in pairs where the tines are spaced apart at a gap transverse to the travel direction of the tines, making the tines suitable for picking up, not only products, but also undesirable materials, e.g., stones in unison. Although Leiston includes provisions to avoid stone or other obstacle pickup, if such stone is aligned favorably with a pair of tines, the stone can still be picked up inadvertently. It is conventional wisdom to equip an agricultural product with pickup pitchfork-style tines where the tines are aligned in close proximity to perform in unison where the tines are disposed in a direction transverse to the travel direction of the tines.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,244,027 to McClure et al. (hereinafter McClure) discloses a ground gauging roller assembly supports an attachment to protect a reel during operation over uneven terrain. The ground gauging roller is disposed significantly downstream from the pick-up reel in the direction of travel, making the reel still exposed to engagement with obstacles, stones, rocks, etc., or any protrusions from the ground. McClure is suitable only for mildly uneven grounds. In contract harvesting especially however, a harvesting crew must work on lands unfamiliar to the crew and typically work large swaths of land on daily basis. The lack of specific knowledge for hazardous areas (strewn with stones, etc.) to avoid can cause significant downtime due to any damage caused to the pickup head. Still, there are instances where ground gauging wheels are mounted in yet another undesirable location. U.S. Pat. No. 3,962,849 to Stoessel discloses a gauging means that senses rises and falls in the terrain in front of the header to swing the latter up and down to accommodate such unevenness in the terrain. Again, the gauging means are disposed ahead of a pickup head which can still contact a protrusion in the ground. Further, there are only two ground engaging wheels, one on each side of the pickup head, making ground gauging absent along the width of the pickup head.
Thus, there is a need for a pickup head capable of lifting product at a more aggressive angle to form improved windrows, a pickup head capable of moving product without clogging problems and causing maintenance issues associated with cam-driven rollers and a pickup head which does not inadvertently pick up and mix dirt, stone and other unwanted materials in the windrows. There is further a need to prevent or reduce detachment of tines or other parts from any equipment used in product gathering or processing.